Student Channel

Three Salford students to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in aid of Kenyan charity

Three Salford students will climb nearly 6000 metres to reach the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro in aid of Dig Deep, a charity which works to provide access to water and sanitation for schools and communities in rural Kenya.

Rachel Dunley, Giulia Fenci and Jonathan Moesbauer will climb Mount Kilimanjaro – the largest freestanding mountain in the world – this August, where they hope to reach the summit in six days.

During the hike, the three Salford students will have no access to toilet facilities and will spend their evenings sleeping under the Tanzanian night sky.

Giulia is a PhD student researching Deployable Biomimetric Structures, Jonathan Moesbauer is a first year Aeronautical Engineering student and Rachel is a second year Physiotherapy student.

The latter, Rachel, has had a lifelong ambition to climb Kilimanjaro, but admits that she has never done anything so extreme before.

Rachel said: “I’ve always wanted to climb Kilimanjaro. I go rambling from 10 to 12 miles with my local walking group regularly, and I’m doing a half marathon before it, but I’ve not done anything as extreme as this. We will sleep on the mountain and we’ll do everything outdoors.”

In addition to the half marathon, Rachel and her fellow Salford students will be doing a number of fundraising activities, including bake sales, car boot sales and fitness events, to help them reach to their individual targets of around £3,000. Rachel's sponsorship page can be seen here, while Jonathan's is here and Giulia's is here.

The students fly out to Tanzania on August 28 and hope to complete the climb by September 04.